WE PLEASED at least two corporate giants yesterday with Punto’s Companies Of The Year issue, a departure from our traditional Man Of The Year testimonial.
Which raised inquiries, inquisitions as well, from a number of our reading public in both our print and web editions.
So has no one passed Punto’s stringent standards and precise parameters to merit being its Man or Woman of the Year? Spiced with sarcasm that question slapped on my face by a political partisan so sure of his patron’s entitlement to be Punto’s MOTY.
So was Punto playing it safe this election year, knowing that the choice of one politico as MOTY would most certainly backlash with the enmity of the many, his/her enemies most especially?
Insinuation of some timidity, if not outright cowardice, on Punto there. And to think we carry this image of fearlessness on our sleeves!
So was Punto co-opted? Whatever that meant.
No sires and mesdames, Punto’s leap from MOTY to COTY was some inspired spontaneity to credit companies that have made their mark in the lives – and livelihood – of the people in this part of the country.
Long time in coming, really, this veering from what we have churned out for the past number of years staring with our first MOTY — Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio, onto Clark International Airport Corp. President-CEO Victor Jose Luciano, City of San Fernando Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez, Gov. Lilia G. Pineda, and Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan last year.
Best – and unquestioned – choices there. So have we run out of excellence among our leaders this 2012 that we opted for the corporate? A big no. Au contraire, there was a surfeit of excellence displayed last tear.
Easily, any one of the following could have been our MOTY, in no particular order now:
The Honorable CARMELO F. LAZATIN. If only for fathering the City of Mabalacat, Cong Tarzan is a hands-down choice. Then there is his elevation to the Hall of Fame of Most Outstanding Congressmen. Not to mention the tsunami he caused with his announcement to run for Angeles City mayor.
The Honorable JERRY PELAYO. No mean feat is his placing Candaba in the world map as migratory bird sanctuary. His rescuing, relieving, comforting omnipresence in the fourth district amid the onslaught of the deluge caused by the southwest monsoons was a rock of refuge for the people.
Development activist RUPERTO L. CRUZ, chairman of the Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement.
For his uncompromising stand on the development of the Clark International Airport as the country’s premier international gateway, and the potential of the Clark Freeport as principal engine of socio-economic growth of the Philippines.
Miss CECILE YUMUL and the Save the Trees Coalition. For standing up to the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources, the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the City Government of San Fernando and thwarting their collective desire to clear the whole stretch of the MacArthur Highway of all trees and damn the environment.
Director BRILLANTE MENDOZA. For his body of work that every Filipino should be proud of.
The Most Rev. PACIANO B. ANICETO, archbishop of San Fernando. Fifty years a priest, 25 years a bishop, forever a font of spirituality and holiness for his flock.
They – and many others – made an impact in our lives and are all deserving of being our MOTY honors.
It just so happened that this year, we dared to be different.
